Formula One reports encouraging rise in TV and digital audiences

Formula One saw a rise in worldwide audience figures across television and digital platforms in 2018, the Liberty media-owned sport reported on Friday.

It said Brazil, China and the United States represented the top three markets in terms of television reach – largely a consequence of new or revised broadcast deals in those countries.

The global cumulative television audience was put at 1.758 billion, of which 1.59 billion were in the top 20 markets – a rise of three percent compared to 2017 and the second consecutive year of growth.

The number of 'unique viewers', now defined by the industry standard of those who watched at least three consecutive minutes across the season, rose 10 percent to 490.2 million.

"In today's world, just having a flat TV number is a strong performance," the sport's global research director Matt Roberts told Reuters.

"We're really pleased that we've seen growth for the second year in a row after many years of decline for the longer term trend."

The showcase Monaco Grand Prix in May returned the highest cumulative audience of the season, showing a rise of 10 percent year on year with 110 million viewers.

Six other races – Bahrain, France, Austria, Britain, Italy and Mexico – also had more than 90 million viewers.

France returned to the calendar last season after a 10-year absence, with the races in Monaco and at Le Castellet's Paul Ricard circuit broadcast free-to-air in France on the TF1 channel.